Caveat: This post is only to educate the people on the quality, standard of processes and customer care one can expect with Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) in India. This post in no way is aimed at driving the existing customers or potential customers away from having a relationship with SCB. Everything stated in this post is backed by various reference numbers that could be verified with SCB and purely based on my experience.

Background:

• Relationship with SCB: January 2013 to February 2014
• Purpose: Home Loan
• Time taken to close home loan: 27^th November, 2013 to 6^th February, 2014
• No. of reference numbers/complaints/callback requests raised: 18+
• No. of calls to SCB customer care: 35+ calls covering over 270+ minutes in just over 2 months

This post is divided into sections detailing what one can expect at various stages of interaction with SCB. Though the relationship with SCB started with the purpose of having a home loan, I was also sold a top-up loan under the name of liability insurance and a SCB “Preferred Banking” credit card.

Reason for closure of loan – Sudden surge in Interest rate!

SCB raised my interest rate directly from 10.15% to 10.9% while every other bank including HDFC and ICICI was way below this number. When asked to reconsider my interest rate, they gave me 10.39% (same rate offered to customers taking new loans) provided I pay about 11K as processing fee. Points to note:

• This processing fee comes at a time when RBI is working on removing it completely and other banks are waiving off quoting an offer or some such thing
• If you do the math to breakeven (assuming you paid the 11K processing fee), you will need an absolute minimum of 6 months in the case of my loan

Not sure if SCB thinks that its customers are mostly dumb or too rich and that they can get away with these things.

Sales Team:

The sales person like in any other private bank was good in selling their products. They also make verbal promises. As a customer or potential customer, what you should be aware:

1. Get everything in written or mailed to you from their official mail ID
   • Without this anything you say at the branch or to their call center team has no validity and will not be entertained
   • Proof: A verbal promise that pre-payment cheques will be collected from you at your office or residence is possible only with that letter. When the time came and I reached out to them, the response was, “Sir, you need to go to the branch and give the cheque. There is a form you need to fill.” When asked about the promise of having them collected and so on, “Sorry sir, you will have to go to the Koramangala branch only.” Sales staffs name: Bharathi.
2. Get the process for closure of loan or any service you want clearly explained and documented (specific to your loan/request)
   
   • Without this be ready for surprises in terms of last-minute delays, new processes being explained from time-to-time, etc.
   • This applies mostly around the time when they try to up-sell and cross-sell. Example: credit card and insurance
   • It is common to hear about new policies and/or charges introduced by SCB just about the time when you thought everything is done
3. Do not let the sales person force you to take a liability insurance and treat it as a Top-up loan
   • Liability insurance (sold by their staff Pankaj) being treated as a top-up loan is good for the agent as it helps them meet their targets. However, this leads to complications when it comes to closing of loan
   • Though you were told it is only liability insurance, you the customer should know that the sales person treated it as a top-up loan and complicated things. Now you have actually got two loans in hand
   • Assurance that they will help you at the time of closing the loan is no use as when you call them, they will tell you to call the customer care and follow it up with them
   • Showing liability insurance as a top-up loan and tying it to the primary home loan, will now need you, the customer to be cautious and closing each one of them manually by raising a request
   • SCB systems are not advanced enough to show all the details on the customer care reps. Screen so it is “always” your fault and not the banks fault
4. Registration amount must be clarified before going to sub-registrar’s office
   • This is the first bank where the bank tells the customer how to do fraud and save money
   • Proof: During registration of my property at sub-registrars’ office, the sales person had already assumed that I will register the property at a lower rate (not at the actual rate I bought the property at) and prepared the documents accordingly. In addition, all documents related to the loan were dispatched to SCBs Central Processing Unit in Chennai. Now I was being told by the agent to go ahead with the registration at a lower rate as it is beneficial to me (in terms of saving money). When I insisted on registering the property at the actual rate I bought, I was told it is not possible to bring the documents back from Chennai. We had to request them to connect us to the regional manager so we can escalate and only then did they bring the documents back and register the property at actual rate

At the branch:

During my handful of visits to the Koramangala branch in Bangalore, I observed that only two service desks will be open at any instant of time to handle all kinds of requests. Even if there are 10 customers waiting to be served, and other staffs are either freely roaming around or sitting in their cabins, no extra counter will be opened.

SCB Systems & Process Quality:

1. SCB systems seem to be a little primitive as most of the time you will hear the customer care say that they need a minute to pull up your details on their screen as the system is slow or they need to transfer the call to someone else as their system hanged
   • Proof: Please ask SCB to give all call transcripts and you can confirm this
2. SCB systems cannot show all details related to a customer
   • Proof: Even after closing of my credit card, and informing the representatives that I no longer hold a SCB card, offers like a pre-approved loan on the SCB credit card issued to me  were being repeated by the customer care
   • When a request is made to the customer care team to close a loan, you have to explicitly specify each loan number. Mentioning the primary loan account and informing the customer rep. to close everything related to it will not help. Informing that you will ultimately need the original documents back and they need to do everything related to the closing of loan will also not help. This is because the system does not show the same
   • Proof: Even at the branch, when I gave the final cheque and asked whether everything is done from my end and I will get the original documents, the person at the branch checked his screen and confirmed, “Yes Sir. It’s all done. You will get an SMS within 7 working days. Once you get that, you can fix an appointment and collect the docs.”
3. Managing of workflows in SCB is a manual process
   • Proof: When a staff says, “they are marking your case on priority” it only means they wrote down, “high priority” in notes and the respective teams has to manually look into it. This is one of the reasons why I had to raise many complaint requests after SLA expired
   • Proof: If the EMI date falls close to the date in PTQ (Pre-closure letter), rest assured your wait is going to be longer. The team does not like to manually intervene and stop the EMI or change the workflow to have things processed fast
4. Courier of documents from Chennai to Bangalore can take up to 15 working days
   • Normal process: You will get an SMS once the documents have been dispatched from Chennai. This SMS will say you can call the branch and take an appointment to collect the docs. As per the SMS when you call, you will be given a date that is 3 days from the date of your call to collect documents
   • Your bad luck process: SMS will say you can call the branch and take an appointment to collect the docs. As per the SMS when you call, if the customer rep does not know about this three-day thing he/she will tell you to call after 3 days and book an appointment. When you do so after 3 working days, the customer rep who might have a slightly better experience than the previous rep you spoke to, will say, “Sir, you can only get an appointment after 3 working days!” This is how SCB drives you nuts!

Retention Team:

If the amount of loan for closure is high (not sure what is high for SCB) or low (25K for my liability insurance), the request will be kept on hold for a longer time before approval.

• Even for the closure of liability insurance (top-up loan), the retention team has to approve
• Even if you are ready to continue the liability insurance with SCB, their process says I cannot if I want the original documents linked to the primary loan

The above is a good example to show how their systems are designed to drive customers away. I had to pay a small penalty on the liability insurance because of SCBs great process. Wish I can go to the court and make SCB pay the penalty for their pathetic systems and processes.

Customer Care:

The team will often use these lines:

“I am marking your case to be taken on Priority”

“By End of day, we will get back to you”

“I will personally follow up and get back to you by tomorrow”.

Now here is the funny part, one day I asked them what is EOD for SCB? Is it 4pm, 5pm? And they had absolutely no clue what End of day is. They are just told to say, “End of day”. If you call after 6pm, they will tell you, “…everyone has left for the day and someone will get back to you by tomorrow positively”.

1. Only way to make them call you is to place a call back request and hope to get a call back the following day. Note: If you do not get a callback within 24hrs and you call the customer care, the call back request will be treated as complete and will be closed
   • Proof: My conversation with Moni in Escalations team is proof of the same. She was hell-bent on closing a callback request whose SLA was expiring their “EOD”. No request to keep the callback request open will be entertained. You can call the team after sometime and be rest assured that the call back request was closed
2. The team has the freedom to raise as many tickets (Reference numbers) as they please. This is because every ticket they give you buys them time
   • Proof: Number of requests I have raised in the just 2 months
3. Toll free number will connect you randomly to either their Chennai office or the Bangalore office based on availability. So a promise made by a floor manager/supervisor/team lead in one office cannot be followed by his/her counterpart in another office. There is no facility to route the call to the other office or get information for you. You the customer has to place a call back request and wait 24 hours for a reply.
   • Other option is to keep calling or keep your fingers crossed to get connected to the branch you want and hope the person is in office. Some people like supervisor, Mr. Manjunath comes to office only at 12 noon (he himself said this) and will not be available after 6pm
4. Any promise of personal follow-up from SCB is useless as you still have to call them and remind them
   • Proof: My interaction with Mr. Manjunath R and Miss. Arthy Jaganathan

Credit card:

This is one of the most notorious cards I have seen till date.

1. Ensure the free credit card given to you is used at least 4 times within the first 3 months period or so. Else you will be levied a charge of Rs.250/- for non-usage
2. Want to talk to their customer care more than two times in a month? Be ready to flush Rs.50/- per call from the 3^rd call you make
3. Redeem all your points – get the gifts – wait for the statement to get generated – pay the outstanding amount and place a request for closure of card. Theoretically, after 7 working days, the card is closed. But SCBs systems are so good, that the redemption fee of Rs. 111.24/- can appear after 2 months. Now that your card is closed, the only way to make the payment is, you the customer must take the pain of either going to the bank or an ATM with a cheque. Wow!
4. By the way, when asked about this to the customer care, they do not accept it is their fault, they still hold you responsible. If this amount came up after 6 months, you still owe the bank. The bank is not responsible for you having closed the card long back

CEO’s office:

I was so pissed off with the customer care team that I decided to let the CEO India & South Asia Operations, Mr. Sunil Kaushal know about the service quality so others don’t have to suffer like me. Guess what!

• Not even a courtesy acknowledgement mail from CEOs office. Nice email etiquette for a British multinational banking and financial services company
• First time I mailed about the quality of loan process, second time it was about the quality of credit card process. In this mail, I requested indirectly for a courtesy acknowledgement. So the mail was forwarded to the same team I was interacting with and they acknowledged receiving the mail

Conclusion:

If you choose SCB, be ready to face some or all of this. If you found reading this long post was pain, you can understand how much pain I was put through by this bank in just 2 months.

***Will post the typical process flow for loan closure in SCB shortly.

It all started with Dad wanting some company for the 10K run and checking if I would give him company.

The TCS World 10K run on 19^th May 2013 was my first run/marathon. The max I have ever run was about 7K on the road while in Chennai (morning jog to the beach). I used to give my dad company at Lalbagh Park on Saturday/Sunday mornings for a jog, but I always ended up doing two rounds less than him. Shame on me for my poor stamina.

Three or four days before the run, I decided to check if I still had any hope of completing the 10K and managed to pull 8Kms in about an hour inside Lalbagh. So there was some hope, as I knew I could walk the remaining 2 kms in 20 minutes 😉

 

TCS 10K – 19^th May 2013

My dad took part in this 10K in 2012 and was eligible to start as part of Group B (those who have a timing of >55 minutes and <1 hour 20 minutes). Unfortunately, he did not get Group B (for unknown reasons), which he was eligible for. Anyway, my dad didn’t mind, as I was there for company, and he wanted to run with me. He gave me enough tips based on his previous running experience. The first tip was that the TCS run never starts on time. This was true! I followed most of the tips religiously and got a net time of 1 hour, 3 minutes, and 19 seconds (Bib #8177). My dad was trailing me by a minute.

Thanks to my favorite app, Sports-Tracker. It kept reminding me I had a long way to go before stopping. At the end of the race, I felt the after-effects of not having practiced enough, stretched enough and followed a proper diet before the run. To top it all, the impact of a bad/poor quality Reebok shoe that had no cushions to absorb the strain on my legs while running on the road. My first lesson in terms of how important the shoes you select to run are.

Bangalore Ultra 12.5K – 10^th November 2013

This time, Dad was in my native place, so I did not have his company 🙁 However, he ran the Pondicherry 10K and the Kaveri 10K run post the TCS 10K.

Having never touched 10K after the TCS run and not having practiced at all during the three weeks before the run date, I knew this was difficult. The track was an excellent bamboo trail off Henur Road. The route is here. Soft ground (muddy road) with ups & downs, so no strain on legs – very similar to the farm at my native place. But getting to this place was a nightmare, as I live in South Bangalore. It took me 1.5 hours to reach it, despite having started at 4:15 a.m. My wifey decided to wake up at 4 am and give me company, My Sweet wifey! It was cold on that day, with mist all over the place, as there were no high rises. Just farms!

Bib #1164, completing the 12.5 kms in 1hr 21min 22sec. The weather played a very vital role, and thanks to the great treadmills in my apartment (pun intended) from “Sportrack” for showing the incorrect distance covered. Learning: If you feel the distance you are covering on a treadmill is higher than normal, chances are it is high. Never trust them! It will give you false hope, make you run at the wrong pace, and make you end up with bad timing.

SBI Midnight Marathon – 14^th December 2013

I first learned about midnight marathons while in New York waiting to see the useless Times Square ball drop. This event was a little tempting. My colleague Sunil also registered, so I had a company. Bib #6567 clocked 1hr 00min 44sec. What a way to finish the year!

You can read my review of the Midnight run here.

Some say, “Interest in marathons starts with just completing the run. Then it is all about beating your earlier time.” Very true! And this can be very addictive (in a good way). My next target is under an hour. I am still not confident about doing a half-marathon, but I will keep it on my To-Do list!

TCS 10K – 18^th May 2014

I got into race category C with bib #3827 and my dad was in category D. A few seconds delayed start for my dad, but he completed well before me with an excellent timing of 1hr 1min 15sec while I clocked my worst ever net finish time of 1hr 4min 48sec. Blame it on the lack of practice and the Sports-Tracker app, which just wouldn’t work.

I am used to seeing the distance, time, and pace and taking breaks to catch my breath. The app worked for a few minutes and got stuck. So I started too fast and ended up losing all my energy way early in the course. Another lesson on pacing right.

SBI Midnight Marathon – 20^th December 2014

This one is my second attempt at the midnight marathon. Unlike the previous year, this year AIMS-IAAF certified the course. The organizers also took the feedback comments from runners last year and had sufficient electrolytes and water throughout the course.

Thanks to Praveen (my brother) for leaving the office early, dropping me off at the venue, and picking me up. One interesting fact here is that I landed from Kuala Lumpur in the morning, and the same day evening I did this run (Bib #7206). After a three-month tiring engagement with hardly any time to practice, clocking 1hr 2min 49sec does not make me feel bad.

To top it all, somewhere around the 3.5 km mark, I got a sprain on my right knee, and it was slowing me down. I had two options: either give up or keep running and make it my last run. I chose the latter. Btw, a big thanks goes to my manager for approving my high-priced ticket, so I can land in India on time for this event.

I bought myself a fitness band, VivoSmart, and was testing it during this run. It was pretty accurate, given the fact that it did not have a GPS built-in.

Auroville Half Marathon – 8^th February 2015

My first run in 2015 and my first half-marathon… I drove to Pondicherry with my dad, mom, brother, and my wife (Meena). Ran inside the beautiful Auroville with trees to give me shade and the soft ground to absorb all the damage my knee would otherwise take during the 21-kilometer run. For a change, I gave my dad some tips for the half-marathon, and with that, he got an excellent time of 2hrs 11min.

My Dad had bib #2424, and I had #2423. My timing was nowhere close to his 2hrs 11min as I clocked 2hrs 19min and there were at least 100 people who crossed the finish line in this 8-minute gap. Now coming to what I did not like in this marathon. First, there was no finisher medal to keep as memorabilia. Second, the course was not certified. Third, the electrolyte was so diluted in most of the stations that it tasted awful. Finally, they took the start time of the race (6:15 am) instead of when you crossed the start line and ignored the seconds part to calculate our finish time. An old lady was sitting near the finish line under a tent, with an iPad recording all finishers crossing the line so they could calculate the timing. None of this is acceptable to me.

This is when I became picky about which runs I took part in. Must be a certified route. A medal to hang and brag is a must.

Kaveri Trail 10K – 19^th September 2015

In 2013, my dad ran the 10K alone, and he used to say a lot about this scenic trail. The following year, we both registered but had to give it a pass as my dad was down with a fever.

This year, my dad got a fancy bib #3000, and I got a bib #1303. Trust me! The pictures on the KTM website and the reality were way too far apart. Yes, it is the Ranganathittu Bird Sanctuary, but there were no birds except for a few crows, lots of cows, buffaloes, and men bathing in the small stream flowing around. So that was a bit of a disappointment. On top of that, it was a sunny day, and the 7 a.m. start, adding a bit more sweat, was not a great run experience.

I just got back from London and was running this with absolutely no preparation in the last four months. My time of 1hr 2min 51sec* is acceptable to me. The best part, my dad was not a Finisher. He was the “Winner” in the Men’s Veteran – 10K category! You are my inspiration to run, Dad!!!

Talking about the fiasco! KTM went ahead with a local timing chip provider. The chip quality and/or the technology did not go through a proper vetting process. So several runners did not get their timings recorded, and KTM had to rely on the personal time that was recorded on the runners’ respective fitness devices. Luckily, my dad’s device worked. I started my tracker well before I crossed the start line and stopped it well after crossing the finish line, as I forgot about it. Hence, the actual time should be roughly a minute less than the one shown here. Guess it’s another lesson! To start our (personal) tracker when you step on the start line and end it the moment you step on the finish line.

Anyway! I did pour my heart out to the RFL team on the goof-up, and they gave me a complimentary T-shirt or a registration for 2016 KTM or Bangalore Ultra (any segment). Given the sad trail in Kaveri and my bad experience, I picked the 12.5 km Bangalore Ultra.

Performax Bangalore Ultra 12.5K – 8^th November 2015

My second attempt at this calm and tranquil trail with Bib #12118 clocked a time of 1hr 17min 21sec.

This was my dad’s first 12.5K with Bib #12601. He was a little confused about whether to pace for 10 or 12.5K, but he comfortably maintained a steady pace right from the beginning till the end. He crossed me somewhere around the 7 km mark, and I was trailing him for about a kilometer and then gave up. Now the good news! He set the course record in this track under the Men’s Veteran category with 1hr 16min 13sec.

Though he says this talks about the quality of other runners, it’s the regular practice that kept him going and ended the course strong. Practice is the only thing that can help you get the required stamina. Oh, by the way, he got his money back as a T-shirt and a nice memento. You should have seen the excitement when we got home.

I am sure he will break his record next year, but I need to try harder and find some time to practice regularly. Getting under the 1-hour mark is my target. Let me see if it happens in the midnight marathon.

SBI Midnight Marathon – 5^th December 2015

My third attempt came with a lot of expectations that I would get under the 1-hour mark, but unfortunately, it happens to be the worst ever in terms of timing. I barely hit 1hr 5min 41sec.

I had the wrong food (at KFC) before the marathon and ended up thirsty throughout the course. On top of that, I missed their water station twice, as it was in a poorly lit area and there were too many runners around me to spot it. I also had to rush at the last minute to the venue because of unplanned stops to pick up dinner, and thanks to KFC for taking over 15 minutes to get the order. Finally, thanks to the great Bangalore traffic for making things even worse. The only good thing was that Meena accompanied me, and she was in the stands cheering for me despite the cold weather.

This event had about 11k runners, and seeing so many crazy folks, including old men and women, run at night startled Meena. Ending the year with four marathons. I hope to do the same in 2016, and if all goes well, hit the sub-1-hour mark.

TCS 10K – 15^th May 2016

This was a very special run, as my dad and brother took part. Initially, it was only myself (Bib #4136) and my dad (Bib #4139) who registered for the event. A few days before the registration closed, my brother (Bib #17465) joined us. Just before the special day, my father was down with a cold, a cough, and a bit of fever. I, too, had a bit of a cold and cough, but I was determined to run. On race day, all three wanted to go, as this was the first time we were doing a run together.

As it was my brother’s first run, he was in Group F but clocked an amazing time of 54min 50sec. The following year, he would get Group B, where he could run more peacefully and get better timing.

Given my dad’s age, the cold, and the cough, his timing of 1hr 2min 24sec is superb. After nine runs, I got under the 1-hour mark and clocked my best timing of 59min 36sec. I was on Cloud 9! Thanks to my wifey for cautiously feeding me protein and carb-filled food at the right time, leading up to the race.

Bangalore Ultra 12.5K – 13^th November 2016

This is our second family run – Praveen’s first Ultra, Dad defending his Veteran-Winner record of 2015, and me just enjoying my favorite track. We arrived on time, had no issues parking, did a bit of warm-up, and started our run. Dad (Bib #1401) got a timing of 1hr 18min 26sec (not as good as the previous year), but he still holds the record, and that matters!

Praveen (Bib #1091) did a stunning 1hr 8min, and I did 1hr 20min 2sec with Bib #1176. Lesson learned! The amount of practice and hard work you put in is directly proportional to the output you get. With less than 50 minutes of practice a week, this is what one can expect. I need to get off the laptop and focus on myself too!

Rock ‘n’ Roll Seattle Half Marathon – 10^th June 2018

After a gap of one year, I took part in a half-marathon. It just so happened that I did a Google search for marathons in the Seattle area and saw this event coming up the following week. I was so excited and searched for a 10K run on their website. To my surprise, there was a 5K, a half-marathon, and a full marathon only. I was like, 5K will not give me the satisfaction of having run, so let’s give the half-marathon a shot. I remember, clearly, my decision to not do another half-marathon after the Auroville run in Feb ’15. But given that I was practicing 3 to 4 times a week for a good two months, I went for it, despite the high registration cost. Post-booking, I checked if my cousin Monisha was interested in running, and she was all in just because the medal looked awesome! Can you believe that???!!! Yes, the Rock n Roll series has some of the best-looking medals. Karthik was into cycling, so he gave this event a pass. Otherwise, it would have been triple the fun!

With no practice or experience doing a half-marathon before, Monisha (Bib #11447) clocked an awesome time of 3hrs 18min 42 sec. And the best part is, she stopped on the way to click some nice snaps of the Seattle skyline and sunrise! While the only thing running through my mind was pacing, and when would the next mile marker come? I had Bib #11067 and clocked my personal best timing of 2hrs 3min 17sec. That’s an average pace of ~8min 45sec for the first 10 miles and ~54min for the first 10K. Now that feels good! Thanks to the awesome weather! I started to sweat only after the 5 kms mark. So you can imagine what the temperature would have been like. Without it, I am sure dehydration and other things would have kicked in early, spoiling the PR.

Oh! By the way, I should say thanks to my client who let me work remotely. As they were on the East Coast, I did have the evenings for myself to do these practice runs! Without it, it would not have been possible.

Beat the Blerch Seattle 10K – 15^th September 2018

My first 10K on a rainy day – start to finish. No company… but the trail (King County’s Tolt MacDonald Park, Carnation, WA) was simply amazing. With Bib# 3820, running on a near-flat trail using my fingers as a wiper to remove the drops of rain from my specs every other minute, I clocked 57min 09sec.

If you are familiar with the cartoon characters, everyone was there. You will love the atmosphere. People from different countries were here, participating as they were in the area! Oh, by the way, the medal was heavy, unique, and awesome! I loved all the items in the goodie bag, too.

Hot Chocolate 15K Seattle – 3rd March 2019

My first 15K distance and my first run at near zero (32F) temperature with wind chill… To top it off, the elevation was a killer as I did not practice enough.

Bib# 50243 with a timing of 1hr 32min 6sec is my worst. However, the one thing I enjoyed in this run was the warm, hot chocolate drink at the end of the run. Perfect! I will run again for this. The other good thing is that I got the best-ever marathon picture taken while running. Thanks to the photographer!

Learning! I know how important the shoes you select to run are. But I didn’t know enough. Hoka One One – Clifton 5 is not my shoe, for sure. Moving from a 11mm drop to a 5mm drop does impact the running style and post-run recovery. I need to go back to my favorite Brooks.

Shamrock 15K Portland – 17th March 2019

This run will always have a special mention. It took 6 years of persuasion to make my beautiful wife, Meena, say yes to a 5K event. She has come to cheer me on a few of my runs (including the midnight run), but she has never said yes to jogging or walking that’s over a couple of kilometers. One might wonder, What’s the big deal? Let me tell you, she is neither a fitness freak nor someone who has an active interest in sports. However, she enjoys a long, lazy walk with good company. So everyone who knows her well found it difficult to believe she really took part in and completed a 5K run.

The whole process of convincing Meena to participate started sometime in late November. It was more like, try the 4-mile walk; it is a very scenic route, etc., etc. Then slowly, I highlighted the fact that 4 miles (6.4 km) is longer than 5K, and she can do the 5K easily. My consultant hat is at work 😉 Then one fine day in February, I made her say or create an expression that sort of looked like a yes (maybe an absent-minded yes) to register for the run. From this time on, there is no turning back. Booked everything before she could change her mind.

The thought of 17th March gave her jitters and some realizations in terms of what she got herself into. But at the same time, her curiosity to understand why there are so many crazy souls running and experiencing the whole thing once for herself took the best of her. The last couple of weeks before the run, she pushed herself to come to the gym with me and do some practice walks on the treadmill. She gave all she had while on the treadmill, elliptical, and cycle. Earlier, she used to do something for a few minutes and then find a nice spot to sit and relax. This time, I had to pull her out of the gym.

We went to Portland a day before the run to collect our bibs at the Expo. Meena got the orange bib# 13870, and I got the blue bib# 21180. She was all excited and, at the same time, very tense. Three reasons: One, other runners looked fit and/or well-trained; two, the distance; and finally, the weather. After the collection of bibs, we walked around downtown, picked up a running jacket, and got back to the hotel. All along, giving her small tips on what to do and what not to do, as I could feel her tension.

The next day, we woke up at 6 am to a bright, sunny day (35F with a wind chill that felt like 30F). We munched some of the yummy brownies Meena had baked for my birthday, then walked toward the start line, which was roughly 5 blocks from the hotel. All the butterflies running through her mind and stomach made her forget the -1 degree Celsius weather for a while. I gave her a few more tips, like my dad did when I took part in the TCS 10K for the first time in 2013. I got her into a corral I felt was right for her speed, and she crossed the start line around 8 am. Thanks to the location-sharing apps, I could see where she was throughout until the start of my 15K at 8:55 am. She got an awesome time of 56min 46sec.

Coming to how I did! I made the mistake of standing in the wrong corral and running with a higher pace (4.35/km) than usual for the first mile, on a stretch that had some elevation to give me a timing of 1hr 34min 44sec (Pace: 10.09/mile). The irony here is that I gave all this as a tip to Meena and I ended up not following any of them. By the way, this is my second run on Clifton 5, and in both runs, I clocked a pace of 10.x/mile. Brooks with a heel-to-toe drop of 11mm gave me 9.x/mile on both the 10K and a half-marathon last year. I’m not going to use this shoe again.

Guess what my current task/target is… Convincing Meena to take part in another 5K and beat her current time of 56min. 😀

Iron Horse Half Marathon, Seattle – 25th August 2019

My second USATF-certified half-marathon with Bib# 1088. It is supposed to be a downhill marathon with an elevation loss of 880′. A beautiful, scenic course where several runners set their PRs. The weather was fine at the start of the run at 8 am (wave 4). For some reason, the terrain looked pretty flat, and I clocked a time of 2hrs 14min 29sec (Pace: 10:16/mile). I was literally dragging myself and walking every couple of hundred meters.

One learning is that practicing on a treadmill is not the same as running on gravel or a road – I could feel the difference in foot strike. At the 10-mile mark, my legs gave up. Compared to my previous marathon (Rock n’ Roll), my VO2 max had taken a hit too. Blame it on the lack of proper practice before the run (a slight fever to make things worse). If I ever run another (half) marathon, I will make sure I do a fair amount of practice on the road, as treadmills give a false hope for long-distance runs.

BMW Dallas Marathon Festival – 10K, Dallas, TX – 10th December 2022

After a gap of 3 years, doing my first official run. Thanks to Covid followed by my relocation to Texas, a new addition to the family, and a change of company. I know this does not justify a 3-year gap. I started the year with a 10K on the treadmill, hoping I would get back to form and do a run this year. With God’s grace, it happened before the year ended.

I heard about this BMW-sponsored Dallas marathon on the radio and decided to register the same day. With Bib #43502, I clocked an official time of 1hr 7min 7 sec. Good crowd, and nice weather; I loved every moment of the run. Happy New Year ’23 in advance!

Hot Chocolate Run – 10K, Dallas, TX – 11th February 2023

After seeing my timing in the BMW Dallas 10K run, I wanted to do some practice and get the timing under the 1-hour mark. A fair amount of 5K runs in January paid off. I couldn’t do much in February because of the cold front that hit for almost three weeks straight. With Bib #30514, I clocked 56min 52sec (i.e., 9:10min/mile). The temperature was 2°C, with the wind chill reducing that to -2°C. I was one of the handful of folks wearing shorts, no windbreaker, and no gloves. I regretted not having a windbreaker at this temperature.

The temperature plays a major role in the performance during the run. I could run without sweating till I crossed the 5K mark. I didn’t need to stop for water at the first station. Saving a few seconds!

During the practice runs I was doing in January, I realized one major thing. I.e., I was feeling the ground during my runs. Then I found I had already clocked 700 kms on my Mizuno, which was resulting in a lack of responsiveness during runs. Given that I was too close to the run, I had to find a shoe that did not require a break-in period. After some quick research, I narrowed down on the Asics Novablast 3.

I did a quick 5K before the run to check if it was the right shoe for my running style, and it was. Not too squishy, the right amount of drop (8mm), very responsive and the foam does not harden much when the temperature drops to 0C (32F). During the practice run, it shaved off 21 sec/min. So I knew I had picked up the right shoe.

Irving Marathon – 10K, Dallas, TX – 1st April 2023

Another run, awesome weather (around 12C), superb crowd, and a beautiful place to run (Las Colinas, Irving, TX). With Bib #3208, I clocked 57min 02sec. Yes, 10 seconds more than my previous run as I miscalculated the walk to the water station and lost a few seconds there. But no regrets as I got under the 1hr mark. Also, because of the bad weather, I could not practice much (at least) ten days before the run. So that also had its impact on the run quality.

Planning for the Irving Frost marathon in December. This route with a run along the riverside reminded me of the San Antonio trip with my sister-in-law. Will do another run on this route anytime.

Spirit of Wipro Run – 5K, Dallas, TX – 9th October 2023

This was a poorly planned event for the Dallas location. The objective of this run was to do some branding. For some reason, this run ended up at a park that is far away from the city, and at 10 am when the sun was shining bright. Even the dog walkers were not present at that time. It was more of a Wipro family event and the route was just about 3 Kms instead of 5 Kms. A total waste of half a day, traveling to this godforsaken place. So net-net, I am not even calling this a run.

Hot Chocolate Run – 5K, Dallas, TX – 10th February 2024

This is my first 5K run and the 3rd hot chocolate run – need to listen to your body when you age. Also, I had the company of a friend (Geetha) for this run. This was her first 5K, and I had the pleasure of passing all the tips I had got and learned over a period. A usual boring trip to the venue and back, all alone, had an awesome company. I hope I can coerce Natraj also to join the next 5K run, so I will get a bigger company next time.

With Bib #157, I clocked 28min 57sec. The three seconds short of 29 minutes look good. My target was 27 minutes, but I had no regrets as it was a rainy day with puddles to jump over and the use of fingers as wipers to remove mist from the specs (and then wondering how to remove the fingerprints as I cannot see clearly). Just before the run, I reduced my expectation to under 35 minutes, given the weather. Also, I realized what I was wearing was not a rain jacket mid-way through the run.

Geetha with Bib #3710 had good timing (50min 49sec) for a first-timer in rainy weather.

You might have seen nice innovative error messages and maintenance messages in sites like Orkut and other Google Products when their site is down or not responding to your request. Well, there are other sites which have such unique messages. One of them is from RedBus.in Check it out below!

Here goes one from GMAIL.

Foursquare.com

Twitter.com

Wooplr.com

Flipkart.com

Simplilearn.com

Will post more as I find them here.

Tools like Klout, PeerIndex, Kred[1], ProSkore and EmpireAvenue have been making noise recently and Kred’s the new social influence tracker on the block. Klout has been around for a while and has gained enough visibility & traction and hence the focus on Klout. All these tools use a series of algorithms to gauge the users influence in the social world. Off late, this is used by HRs during recruitment process and Sales & Marketing professionals during campaigns.

Influence score is similar to having a credit score. Recently at a “Fashion’s Night Out party” at Bal Harbour Shops in Florida guests had to have a Klout score of 40 or higher to gain entry. Samples are given out to users with a good influence score. This article is about understanding what the score comprises of to improve your social score.

Parameters that influence the Klout score to a significant level are captured based on the analysis of Klout for about four months between May and September 2011. One objective of the study was to maintain a consistent Klout score of 30+ for two months. The result of ~250 tweets and study of ~100 twitter handles, gives you some of the parameters that impacted the Klout score. Twitter handle primarily used for this study was _jk82.

Never even dreamt that I would do this one day. Let me date things back a little to explain where and how it all started.

My friend Bhuvan did all the research and mentioned that there is a place called Umm-Al-Quwain where we can do sky-dive and wanted to know if I was interested. It was hardly a month before our term exams and I knew, it’s now or an opportunity lost. So decided to go for it. On the day of the jump it was a mix of nervousness and excitement. Bhuvan, Rachita and myself reached the place at around 9am, signed a hand full of papers, got introduced to our trainer and finally all set inside the plane after a small training session. On reaching 11K feet, there was only one thing that crossed my mind. “I can’t believe I am doing this” 🙂

The moment I got off the plane and the AFF (Accelerated Free-fall) started, fear was not there in my head as I knew I had a good 50 seconds at least before I can hit the ground unlike in a bungee jump where you have 5 seconds. The tandem instructor did a couple of 360 degree turns and every time he did that, I could feel the pressure in my ears. Guess this is what people call as experiencing G’s. Once you reach the no drop zone, the parachutes get deployed and it feels like someone pressed the pause button in a video. It takes a while for you to realize that you are still loosing altitude as the air that was gushing past you at close to 200 kmph and now its somewhere around 60 kmph. The instructor asked me how it was like to get off the free-fall. Told him it looks like everything has come to a sudden halt and it is in slow motion now. He smiled and asked if I want to learn how to lose altitude fast in a parachute? Gave my obvious answer. Then he showed me the small grass land where we had to land. He said, the wind direction plays a major role in landing and as its good, he said, we will be able to drop altitude vertically for a few seconds and then start drifting towards the landing area. He then started to pull one side of the chute and we started to literally spiral down. We repeated that fiasco by pulling the other side of the chute also once and then I could see that we were really close to the grass strip.

So totally I had a 40 second AFF followed be a few minutes of gliding in the parachute. This is something that will definitely last a life-time for me. Once you are on the ground, you’ll feel like you have conquered something. And then you will ask, “Is that all? Can I do it again?” 😀  In simple words, it is a perfect blend of excitement, achievement, sense of calmness and clarity.

As usual, I called home post all my adventure to say I just jumped off a plane 😉 Somethings are to be kept as a surprise and this is one of them. I had to explain a couple of times before my dad actually understood what I was trying to tell him as he definitely didn’t expect me to do this. I’m sure by now my parents know they have one crazy devil at home.

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So what’s next? Solo sky-dive. I’m sure this is a long way to go. But someday, I will have the certificate to say I have conquered the blue skies. And ya, it does not end here. I need to scuba dive too. Give me some nice places to do these two guys!!!

Till 1999, my New Year celebration went like this.

• Invite friends home and have a party*
• Go to a relatives place and have a party*
• Aimless drive around the city for a couple of hours… check out the lights, etc, etc and then have dinner at a good restaurant
• Sit at home and watch TV

*party = Dinner on the table.

Most of the time, its a “struggle” to stay awake till 12, unless there is some interesting program on TV. When the clock strikes 12, wish everyone and then in about 15min, crash. This 15min, can extend to about 30min, if we manage to get a call through to/from someone.

Year 2000, my first year in college; things didn’t change much as I was in Bangalore with my parents. Hostel life… first time out of house… you miss home so its acceptable to head home and spend time watching TV doing nothing. Second and third year in college (2001 and 2002), was a little different. I don’t know if I can say it was good as I ended up doing a return journey from Bangalore to Chennai by bus on New Year’s eve. On 1st Jan 2002 around 2:30am, I still remember seeing the shooting star sitting in the half empty bus, comfortable in my seat as I had both the seats for myself. This is when I wished that I will spend every New Year in a new place outside home. Now lets see how things progressed since then.

2003: Chennai

…with my roomy Shiva and his friends from Satyabama college. Pretty good for a start as we played some pool, a beer and drive around Chennai in bikes. Adventure actually started around 12:20am when we returned to besant nagar (our home). We realized that the complete besant nagar beach area was blocked for security reasons and no one can go to the beach. Which means, we cannot go to our own house which was right next to the beach. 🙁

We tried every possible street to our area and nope… it was all blocked, barricaded and guarded. Then we had to stay at a friends place for the night and head back home the next day morning around 6am. Quite a New Year… at least I was not at home. So the resolution was a success in the first year.

2004: Noida

Got placed in Noida after my ILP in TCS. First time for me in North India and to Hindi. As I reached Delhi just before Christmas, I was not put in any project. Me and my friends were free to move around and explore the place. My hindi knowledge was restricted to what I have heard from people and movies till then. But that did not hinder me much. Fun has no language barriers! A chilly New Year! No great fun! but we did have our time. Moreover, it was away from home as planned. Another successful year of keeping my 2002 New Year resolution.

2005: Wisconsin

Out of the country for the first time. Five guys left Waukesha county at about 7:30pm without dinner (hoping to get back by 2:30am and have dinner at home). Reached Milwaukee at around 9pm. One of my roomies, Rahul Bondre had done the home work of what pubs are there and we decided to go with what he said was good. He had picked two places. We parked our car in a nice place and then started to walk. Trust me.. walking at near sub zero temperature in windy weather is not good and only God knows what home work he did as we ended up walking from one place to the other and back for almost an hour. (Details for doing the back and forth between pubs is out-of-scope for this post). Then we reached a point where we decided to get in somewhere. Drove to another place closeby and at around 11:45pm we were at the start of a street. Each shop in that street was nothing but a bar or a pub. The first one was called “Corner Pub”. We decided to start here and then go where ever we wanted and eventually meet up at a particular point at 6am. 🙂

And yes… we all ended at the other end of the street at 6:30am. Things don’t end here. On reaching home we found that we hardly had anything to eat. Empty fridge and cupboards. Typical bachelors house… so no complaints. Now this was definitely one memorable New Year! and another successful year of withholding the tradition (2002 resolution).

2006: Mumbai

For some Knowledge transition work I had to go to TCS SEPZ office. Nice place.. Pretty close to IIT Powai and Hiranandani. I was there at Hiranandani with a friend of mine who was travelling to US the next day. Crowd was damn good. Just that moving around was a little difficult and I managed to get hold of a nice vantage point to see and enjoy the crowd. One happening and lively place. Mumbai Rocks! 😀

2007: Dehradun

This was another memorable trip to remember. Stayed at Shrish’s sisters place in Dehradun, visited Mussorie, Danolti, Auli and back in Dehradun for New Year’s eve at a nice hotel. You can read about this entire trip in one of my travelogues – The Great Auli Experience. This completes five successful years of holding on to my New Year resolution.

2008: Singapore

My MBA days… No words to explain. Term 2 for IT was heaven as we had finished most of the courses in Term 1 itself. Me and my friends had a ball of a time in Sentosa Island. It was a foam party! and that too by the beach side. Fireworks at 12 and beer flowing all over. Need I explain more???

2009: Chennai

Looks like my tradition of being in a new place just broke. But nothing to worry. This was a little different though I was not in a new place. We went to GRT Grand, then while heading back home (The Tree Story*) and then party at my house with Glen 😉 made this year Rock for me.

*The Tree Story is out of scope for this post.

2010: New York

A project at the last minute and that too in NY… just couldn’t get any better. Managed to get hold of my batch mate in NY. Though we were in office till well past 7pm, we managed to make it to Times Square on time. We could have gone to a hundred other places in NY, but we wanted to know what the big deal this ball drop was all about. Trust me… it’s the worst experience. Those buffoons could have at least kept some display or music to entertain the people who are standing like idiots to watch a ball drop.

Our luck, we had two females to give us company. One was cute nurse from CA and the other female was from NY but never witnessed the ball drop live so she had also come to know what the big deal was. Incidentally she ran in the NY mid night marathon the year before. If it was not for these two females, we would have actually given up and got out of Times Sq. much before 12. Then I caught up with my cousins who were at 55th and 8th ave. One awesome place. Thanks to Ashvini for picking the place “Barcelona Bar”. They sell some 100+ varieties of shots. 😀

After spending time with them, my friend Uphar and I got back to Jersey city, and continued the fun at my place.

2011: Bandipur, Karnataka

I was afraid I might end up at home and break the New Year code. But I got lucky as my friend Shrish was ready to check out some nice place for New Year’s eve. So I decided to create a theme for this New Year – Jungle Theme. Shrish, Apoorva (his wife), Aditya (his kid) and myself drove from Bangalore to Bandipur in his car. My car had just completed a Hampi trip and was not in a condition for this trip. NH13 highway sucked big time and took all the juice out of my poor lil car.

We had booked two log huts in a place called Vana vihar just before the start of the jungle. This was on the 30th December. The next day, we hit Gopalaswamy Betta then Wayanad, where we did a jungle safari followed by a self guided night safari in Mudhumalai. We then got back to Bandipur where a camp fire was waiting for us. I should say, camp fire after a very very long time and away from the city buzz was definitely a good way to celebrate new year. Will post a separate blog on this trip later. Keep a watch on my Travelogue section.

2012: Edison, New Jersey

One of the best New Year’s! Spent at home with everyone around… Playing & chatting till midnight with some wine 😉 Can’t ask for more.

2013: Ooty

During college days while visiting Ooty, we (Shrish and myself) used long for two things and this trip made it happen! One, we wanted to drive in bikes and two, we wanted to come with a girl (wife now). We drove to Ooty and then rented bikes. Shrish was staying in a hotel about 20 minutes from our place as he had booked it long back. We got an excellent place to stay (Berry Hills resort) close to the Tea factory. As it was newly opened, everything was good! except for the approach road. New Year party in Nahar hotel. Managed to check out Sinclair’s too on the way.

Oh btw, how can I forget to mention what happened in Dodabetta peak! My wife tells me, only mad people will have ice cream when it is cold and when I start having, she gets tempted and has a taste. After that you know what happened! She fell in love with ice creams in cold weather too 🙂

2014: Bangalore (Home)!

Guess the power of shooting stars last for a little over a decade only…. My 2002 New Year resolution ends today!